The Nasarawa State Commissioner for Health, Ahmed Baba Yahaya said the state has recorded a case of Lassa fever.
Yahaya also disclosed that the state is also hit by tropical endemic diseases known as Onchocerciasis, Lymphatic Filariasis, Schistosomiasis, Trachoma and soil-transmitted helminths, affecting all the 13 Local Government Areas of the state.
The commissioner disclosed this during a press briefing to mark the world neglected tropical diseases celebration in Lafia, the state capital.
The commissioner further disclosed that the state is also hit by dengue fever, buruli ulcer, yaws, leishmaniasis, human and animal trypanosomiasis, rabies, leprosy, snake bite, among others.
He said, in order to stem these diseases, the state government, with the support of Carter Center, has trained 45 local integrated health team members, 611 community distributors, 2,153 teachers, 42 school supervisors and 7 social mobilization officers.
He posited that the state has received 502, 700 tablets of mebendazoles and 194,984 tablets of praziquantel drugs from the Federal Ministry of Health for the treatment of school age children, enrolled and non-enrolled in public and private primary and Junior secondary schools in the state.
He added that the state government has treated 502, 349 children of 5-14 years.
“With support from the Federal Ministry of Health and Carter Foundation, the state programme intended to mobilize and train 45 local integrated health team, 225 health facility staff, 611 community-directed distributors, 42 school supervisors, 13 social mobilization officers and 2,824 school teachers”, Yahaya said.
He further stated that, “the people affected with neglected tropical diseases are as a result of poor or lack of environment sanitation, poor housing, lack of safe portable drinking water and personal hygiene.”
